Taunton
Taunton is a town in Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its 1,000 years of history include a 10th-century monastery. Taunton Castle originated in the Anglo Saxon period and was later the site of a priory. The Normans built a stone castle that belonged to the Bishops of Winchester, of which the reconstructed parts are the inner ward, housing the Museum of Somerset and Somerset Military Museum. Events include the Second Cornish uprising... Show more of 1497, when Perkin Warbeck marched a 6,000-strong army to Taunton, most of which surrendered to Henry VII on 4 October 1497. On 20 June 1685 the Duke of Monmouth crowned himself King of England at Taunton in a rebellion that peaked with the Battle of Sedgemoor. Judge Jeffreys lived in the town during the Bloody Assizes in the Great Hall of the Castle. The Grand Western Canal reached Taunton in 1839 and the railway in 1842. Today it includes...